Meet Anastasia, an OTYF teacher and ambassador!  Anastasia has been to Baptiste Level 2, is a powerful teacher and motivator, and calls on us all to stay present and dedicated.  Anastasia has also been to Israel and Palestine before, and has been a big part of encouraging the other teachers to come this year.  Thank you, Anastasia!

Anastasia writes:

I started yoga at a weird time in my life. Or at least, it seemed like that to me. After having swum competitively for almost six years, I was damaged goods. I had too many injuries to continue swimming and was looking for an activity that would keep me somewhat fit and would not damage me any further.

I came to yoga closing my mind off to my body to ignore the pain from my injuries. I had also just transferred from one university to another. So mentally I was in a place of serious unease and I came to yoga closing myself off from others.

I have worked through the pain and the injuries. I have even started to heal those injuries and work through scar tissue. It has been amazing how my body has transformed in yoga and how that goal of being “somewhat fit” has been surpassed.

But the most thrilling, prominent and impacting change yoga has brought me has come from how I relate to other people. I am no longer closed off. I no longer let my weird high school days disturb me. I no longer fear interactions. I came to see that life doesn’t happen when you’re sitting on the sidelines. Life happens when you’re out and about in the world, doing things with other people, talking with those around you and engaging with your world.

The process by which I came to all these revolutionary ways of being and acting is a whole long saga, one with which I am not going to bore you. But even as I sit here typing this short post, I am getting antsy and restless thinking out how I want to be out THERE in the world and not in HERE at my desk by myself typing. For this reason (and millions more) I am going to Israel and Palestine with the wonderful Ruthie Goldman Van Wijk and the Olive Tree Yoga Foundation. Part of my purpose here in this life is to be out there with people, engaging them and connecting with them. I aspire to be that person who hears and sees others so that others may be reassured that they have made a connection with someone. Any connection, no matter how brief, is worth cherishing. I feel weird doing these things, but this is a weird I genuinely love.

In the midst of conflict and controversy, human connections are more often than not ignored. And because yoga is the medium by which I opened myself up again, yoga is the medium by which I will be connecting with those people whose lives have been forever changed by the conflict in the Middle East. As Dr. Seuss once said, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” I am aiming to see those small people.